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Marco Rubio: Student visas ‘not a right’

Sen. Marco Rubio said Wednesday student visas “are not a right” and that the nation needed to be open to changes that provided more security, though he refused to take a firm stance on the issue.

“I don’t like profiling anybody, I don’t like singling out anybody or generalizing anything,” the Florida Republican said on Fox News. “On the other hand student visas are not a right. Student visas are something this country does out of generosity, student visas are something this country does because we figured out it’s in our national interest, but you don’t have a right to a student visa. Therefore we can place whatever restrictions we want on student visas.”

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Rubio then said he wasn’t going to take a position as it pertains to restricting visas from Muslim students, saying that he just wants to know what might have worked to prevent past terrorist attacks. However, he did acknowledge that some terrorists, such as a few of the 9/11 attackers were in the U.S. on expired student visas, and had they been properly tracked, their illegal presence in the country would’ve been known.

Some political pundits, including Bob Beckel, have suggested temporarily putting a hiatus on student visas to Muslim students in light of the Boston Marathon bombing, until the FBI has adequately screened those who are already present in the country. The comments resulted in some backlash.

The bombing could also pose a threat to the immigration bill proposed by the Gang of Eight, with some members of Congress seeking to hit the pause button on the movement for reform. Rubio insisted that there was no cause for rushing the bill through.

“I’ve never said this has to be done quickly. This country has been struggling with this for three decades. Let’s do it right so we don’t have to do it again,” Rubio said. “The immigration process, first and foremost, must be good for America. And my point is if there’s ways to improve it, we should do it.”

“If Boston exposes flaws in our system, immigration or otherwise, we should address that, and we should address that in this bill if possible, of course,” he added. “Why would you have a tragedy happen in Boston, which is horrible, but we need to learn from it. And why would we not apply those lessons, whether in this bill or some other bill?”